He’s Talking It Up for ‘Live Ed’

--For those who haven’t had their fill of Live Aid or Farm Aid, there’s yet another in the works. “Live Ed,” a benefit bash slated in Dallas on Thursday to shore up the finances of the Mister Ed Fan Club, will be a salute to the world’s only talking horse. “The Mister Ed Fan Club plummeted into debt in the summer of 1984,” said James Burnett, who founded the club in 1974 before he had ever seen the old “Mister Ed” television series, which ran from 1961 to 1966. He’s hoping that Live Ed will stir up support for the club with the help of Alan Young, who played Mister Ed’s sidekick, Wilbur, or “Wilburr,” as the name sounded when the horse, Mister Ed, said it. Young, who now does voices for Disney movies and the cartoon “Smurfs,” said: “I don’t have any act that I do. I used to ride Ed, but he’s dead. So that leaves me standing alone.” The horse died in 1972. Fans attending the celebration will pay $10 to extol the virtues of the talking horse and watch tapes of the old show. Burnett, an assistant manager at Forever Young records in Irving, Tex., is already looking ahead to his next project: a concert tour through the Southwest called, you guessed it, “Hooves Across America.”

--Earl Zwingle watched the Statue of Liberty dedication ceremonies on television, but he had eyes only for President Reagan’s neck. Zwingle of Hillsborough, Calif., had sent the President one of the many ties made from his 10-year-old design--tiny white torches with orange flames set on a navy blue background. He explained that the tie would be perfect for when the President flipped the switch to illuminate the statue’s torch. “I was bowled over when there it was on his neck,” Zwingle, 76, said. “Still, I didn’t know how he could turn it down. It sure . . . was the appropriate neckwear for that night.” The President sent Zwingle a note, dated July 1, thanking him for the tie, but the note did not arrive at Zwingle’s home until after the statue was lighted. Zwingle, who works for a travel service after 47 years in the retail business, designed the tie a decade ago for the University of Tennessee, where he was graduated in 1931. The design, which symbolizes enlightenment, still is used by the school to raise money for scholarships. Zwingle said he wears his everywhere.

--A 71-year-old duck decoy was sold for $319,000 at a waterfowl auction in Kennebunk, Me., making it the most expensive piece of art ever sold in the state, according to Richard W. Oliver, auctioneer. “It really is a great American folk art,” Oliver said. The wooden pintail decoy was carved around 1915 by A. E. Crowell for a Dr. John C. Phillips. It bears Crowell’s “oval brand” and the doctor’s penciled initials.